10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka (on behalf of the Hon. Rauff Hakeem)

Samagi Jana Balawegaya· Galle· 5 February 2025 ·Oral question: Oral Question: COVID-19 Health Guidelines (Q.249/2024)

HealthcareJustice & Human Rights
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Asked the Minister of Health and Mass Media whether the Ministry accepted that it had been misled by an “Expert Committee” in deciding on the cremation policy for COVID-19 deaths, as stated by the State Minister of Indigenous Medicine on 29 November 2022. The question sought confirmation of whether the committee was government-appointed and requested details of its recommendations, appointing authority, mandate, membership, chairperson, meeting schedule, venues, and presiding officials, or reasons if such information was not available.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 asked the Minister of Health and Mass Media:

¶ 02 (a) Will he inform this House - (i) whether the Minister of Health agrees with the statement made by the State Minister of Indigenous Medicine on 29/11/2022 that the Ministry of Health was misled on its policy decision regarding cremation of COVID-19 deaths by a “Committee of Experts”; and (ii) whether the aforementioned Committee was a Government-appointed committee?

¶ 03 (b) If the above Committee was a Government-appointed committee, will he also inform this House - (i) its recommendations specifically on COVID-19 death disposals; (ii) the appointing authority; (iii) the Terms of Reference and/or mandate; (iv) the names and designations of the members; (v) the name of the Chair; (vi) whether it meets continuously; (vii) if not, the last date it met; (viii) the number of meetings held to date; (ix) the place where the meetings were held; and (x) the names of the individuals who chaired each of the meetings, separately?

¶ 04 (c) If not, why?

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Wednesday, 5 February 2025 ·No. 1739175806099814 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka (on behalf of the Hon. Rauff Hakeem). 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 5 February 2025. No. 1739175806099814. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/26791